"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the press, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding initial doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
